Domains Help

About .co.za domains

The .co.za country-code top-level domain name (ccTLD) is an extension that represents the Republic of South Africa.

Domain names can be up to 63 characters, with a minimum of one character, and can contain letters (a to z), numbers (0 to 9), and hyphens (except at the beginning or end of the domain name). You cannot register domain names with special characters such as & and #.

Note: You cannot register .co.za domain names explicitly for resale. However, they can be sold and transferred.

Details

Your .co.za domain name must be renewed at least 2 days prior to expiration to avoid a $80 redemption fee and downtime. If you do not pay the fee, the renewal fails before its expiration date and the domain will be parked and locked upon expiration.

You can renew your .co.za domain name at any time prior to this. However, only single year renewals are permitted unless the domain is already in redemption, then a 2 year renewal can be requested.

If auto-renew is enabled, we attempt to renew the domain starting 19 days prior to the expiration date.

Authoritative nameservers (nameservers that return answers only to queries about domain names that have been specifically configured by the administrator) are required by the registry.

If you want to register a .ZA domain name with GoDaddy and use our nameservers, we will handle this process for you.

If you want to use your own nameservers, you must set them up before you register or update the domain name. You must also ensure that they are resolving properly before you assign them to the domain name in our system.

1-5 IPs are allowed per nameserver.

Child nameservers require an IP address.

Child host nameservers cannot be removed unless you delete the parent domain and then they will be deleted along with it.

Max length of a nameserver is 186 characters (not including the parent domain name).

Nameserver updates can take 5 business days to process, during which time the domain will be locked. Errors will occur when attempting to update other domain information during this time, such as contact information, etc.

The transfer-away process is unique for .CO.ZA. An authorization code is not needed to transfer, nor does the domain need to be unlocked. In order to transfer, you must first request the transfer with the new registrar, which will trigger an e-mail voting procedure. An e-mail will be sent from the registry (ZADNA) to each Whois contact (Owner, Admin, Tech, and Billing). At least one party has to APPROVE for a successful transfer. The transfer will fail if at least one party denies the transfer, and if there are NO votes received (APPROVE or DENY), the domain will not be transferred. If a party doesn´t vote, the vote will be disregarded. If the transfer is not accepted in 5 days, the .CO.ZA transfer will fail.

If the transfer is not accepted in 5 days, the .co.za transfer will fail.

Note: A co.za domain name cannot be transfered within the first 7 days following registration.

All contact information can be changed through the Domain Manager in your GoDaddy account. Contact updates can take 5 business days to process, during which time the domain will be locked. Errors will occur when attempting to update other domain information during this time, such as dns information, etc.